Kuo: Apple expects to sell more iPhone 15 Pro Max’s with periscopic lens

Apple expects that between 35 and 40 percent of the upcoming iPhone 15 smartphones sold will be an iPhone 15 Pro Max, claims TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. According to him, this is due to the introduction of a periscopic zoom lens on the most expensive model.

Diagram of a periscopic lens.
Source: OPPO

The iPhone 15 Pro Max gets according to Kuo the highest share within the iPhone 15 series, which is expected to be released on September 22. The share of the iPhone 15 Pro Max would be between ten and twenty percent higher compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max. According to the source, this is due to the introduction of the periscopic lens in the most expensive model.

Kuo previously reported that the entire iPhone 16 Pro series will have such a zoom lens and this would further increase the share of iPhones sold with a periscopic lens by seventy percent. According to the analyst, Taiwanese Largan produces the special camera lenses for Apple and also for Huawei. The retail price of such a lens would be between three and four times higher than that of a regular camera lens. This could contribute to the alleged price increase that Apple has planned for the Pro series.

Periscopic camera lenses are a subcategory of camera lenses in which lenses are placed perpendicularly in the device, after which mirrors reflect the light at a ninety-degree angle to the sensor. Thanks to the larger focal length between the lens and the sensor, a further zoom is possible compared to regular telephoto lenses.